Kent State University Expansion

Background

Kent State University (KSU) is Northeast Ohio’s premier choice among public universities in the region, making the demand to attend and work there quite high. As a result, the university chose to expand their capacity with a three-story building that would hold 3,159 m² (34,000 ft²) of space.

Within that area, there would be departments for advancement operations, alumni relations, corporate and foundation relations, gift and estate planning, intuitional advancement, and a university foundation. There would also be space for administrative offices, a call center, meeting rooms, an 80-person event space, an exhibition hall, and an associated support space. All of which would help consolidate 104 university employees under one roof and streamline the university’s operational efficiency.

To make this possible and sustainable, the developers for KSU’s expansion specified that the project be built for a LEED Silver certification level. That meant ensuring the walls of the expansion were watertight so that they could meet the high levels of required insulation and be fully air-sealed while remaining eco-friendly, and it also meant that the KSU expansion would need a sustainable solution for its overall construction.

Solution

To find the best solution available for their sustainability goals, the KSU expansion developers brought in Kryton’s Ohio distributor, Price Builders & Developers Inc., L.L.C. That led to the expansion project team applying Kryton’s integral waterproofing admixture, KIM, to the elevator pits. However, they soon realized that it would also be perfect for the entire foundation of the expansion’s structure.

That’s because KIM not only helps concrete become waterproof with an ability to self-seal and last the life of the structure but also adds valuable LEED certification points. One of which can easily be achieved due to KIM’s contribution to the overall durability and life expectancy of a building by increasing its freeze-thaw durability, which is key to ensuring a leak-free structure in Ohio.

It all resulted in a successful project, which remains leak-free and performing as expected.